I decided to use my Covid isolation time to learn French and have tried a number of online applications: Babel, DuoLingo, Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and, of course, Fluenz. My top two are Fluenz and Pimsleur, in that order. Fluenz offers the most comprehensive approach, by far. I have spent about two hours a day, most days, for nine months studying on Fluenz and am now testing at the intermediate level. I'm not conversational, but feel very confident that I could easily get through a day in Paris, shopping, asking directions, making reservations, navigating train stations and airports, ordering in restaurants, etc. I understand basic French grammar and have a pretty good vocabulary. The good of Fluenz: - Consistent lesson plan structure- Clear and concise explanations by a "virtual tutor" clear up otherwise confusing aspects of the language (and there are a lot of them)- Good combination of speaking, writing and listening. - Flash card reviews are available to drill previous lessons and keep all the material fresh. The flash cards are fantastic and I use them daily. - The consistent structure of the lessons helped motivate me to push through them on the tough days. Knowing where I was in the lesson and knowing there were only one or two modules left on those days motivated me to grind it out.The not-so-good of Fluenz- The woman who voices the Isabella character has an odd accent which makes it very frustrating for a beginner struggling to understand even perfectly spoken French. She ends a lot of words by adding an "uh." Imagine if you were just beginning to learn English and someone pronounces "learn" as "learn-uh" or "imagine" as "imagine-uh." Until I developed an ear for her particular pronounciations, it was very difficult. The other voices are great. Unfortunatelly Isabella is a main character throughout. - As much as I love the flashcards, they have an unfortunate inconsistency. As you will learn with Fluenz, there are different ways to construct correct sentences. Sometimes very different ways. Most of the times, the flashcards accommodate that. But, some of the times, the flashcards don't. For example, oui and si can both mean "yes" but if you don't have the context of previous sentences, it's not possible to know which is appropriate. Since the flashcards don't give context, they should allow both, in this case. There are A LOT of these cases in the flashcards, so they are sometimes more about remembering exactly the way a sentence was constructed in a previous lesson than about constructing a correct sentence. It would be better if Fluenz spent the time to fix this glitch, but the flashcards are still pretty effective.
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Several years ago we set out to create the language-learning program we had always wanted for ourselves. In the eight years since then we’ve handcrafted seven language programs, each one individually tailored to the needs of real learners. We spent all that time carving a unique path through each language to allow English-speakers to learn better and faster. While teaching Mandarin as if it was Spanish is very common, it wasn't good enough for us.
Languages are the result of billions of conversations over hundreds, even thousands of years. This is the complexity that makes them beautiful and which tempts so many of us to take up the challenge of learning them. Of course it’s possible to play with an App and pick up a few words, but to actually retain enough Spanish to ask questions, give and receive directions, and have a conversation in a real setting takes a lot more than that.
It takes a great teacher, the kind who leads, inspires, and challenges us to fluency. Conveying the magic of a great one-on-one tutorial in a digital program begins by placing the tutor at the center of learning—even on the iPhone. For those who really want to learn, our great teachers, our great explanations, and the way each language is carefully taught can make all the difference in the world. And that's what inspires our work.
One more thing. While engaging, beautiful design is often dismissed as irrelevant in education, we beg to differ.See more
